Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR approves confederative plan in 1991
On September 2, 1991, the Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR supported by an overwhelming majority the dissolution of the existing union of 15 Soviet republics and the possibility for them to choose independence or another format of participation in a new association. This is stated in an archival report by The Guardian.
A new system of government
The decision was made after a report on a crisis meeting in the Kremlin involving President Mikhail Gorbachev and representatives of 11 republics. The report was presented to the deputies by Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The proposed model envisaged the creation of a State Council comprising Gorbachev and the leaders of republics that would sign the union treaty. It was to handle domestic and foreign policy. Economic issues and reforms were to be overseen by an inter-republic economic council, while a body with 20 representatives from each republic was planned to replace parliament.
A choice for the republics
The republics were offered the opportunity to independently determine the degree of their participation in the political union. They could sign the union treaty and later choose full or associate membership. Another option was independence, under which the Congress was to support a republic’s application for admission to the UN.
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All 15 republics, including those that would choose independence, could join an economic union intended to preserve a “single free economic space.” They were also offered an agreement on collective security to preserve a single army and a common military-strategic space.
Approval of the confederative plan
After three days of heated disputes, the Congress approved Gorbachev’s plan to replace the centralized USSR with a loose confederation of sovereign states. The Baltic states and Moldova refused to participate in negotiations on drafting the plan, while Georgia attended them as an observer.
According to the publication, representatives of several republics and nationalities objected to individual provisions of the proposal. Some deputies also opposed reducing the role of the Congress itself in the new system of government.
